Young musicians lament lack of local venues

Sunday

Mar 9, 2014 at 6:00 AM

By Zachary ComeauDaily News staff

With a sludgy, riff-heavy introduction, Christopher Chaisson and Holliston indie rock band The Young Leaves begin their set with their trademark introduction that has almost everyone watching bobbing their heads in unison.The band, according to singer and guitarist Chaisson, 25, a 2006 graduate of Hollistion High School, came into existence in 2006 as a solo project he began in the basement of his childhood home in Holliston. After a "good run" with other band members, the drummer and bassist quit, leaving only Chaisson on the guitar and vocals.In late 2011, he met current drummer and Milford native Erick Delgado, 23, and bassist Lindsey Nogueira, 23, also of Milford, last fall to make up the current lineup, which they say is here to stay.As the last stop of a one-week tour that included gigs in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, the band felt right at home at Dusk, a nightclub in nearby Providence, R.I.But when the band is not on tour, driving for as long as an hour to play a show is expected, as there is no local venue in the Milford and MetroWest areas to play."A lot of people have musical backgrounds in the area," said Delgado, now living in Boston. "There’s a lot of support on the younger side of the spectrum, but there’s nowhere to take advantage of that."Nogeuira agreed, adding that while a young, music-loving crowd still inhabits the area, performances at local bars "cater to the older generations" with classic rock cover bands making up most of the performers."As years go on and we become older, there’s such a love for this type of music, so I feel like we will definitely have more power in years to come," she said.Despite the relative obscurity of coming from a small town in central Massachusetts, the band has been signed to independent label Baldy Longhair Records, which just released the band’s latest full-length album "Alive and Well" in October – a "huge success," Chaisson said."That didn’t happen because we sat around being upset about how Holliston sucks and how Milford is boring," he said.Born Without Bones, also partly a product of Milford-based musical talent, began in 2010 as a solo project of Milford-raised Scott Ayotte, 23, now of Jamaica Plain. Now, the singer and guitarist has the help of Burton Wright, 30, of North Attleborough on drums, Milford native Jonathan Brucato, 25, now of Cambridge on guitar, and Jim Creighton, 26, of Milford.The new lineup’s first release, an 11-song album titled "Baby," came over the summer.The band tours regularly, but not for more than two weeks at a time or the "weekend warrior thing," said Creighton, a 2006 graduate from Foxborough High School, as each member has other obligations.Like their friends in The Young Leaves, Born Without Bones also reminisced on times past when the Milford-area music scene was more vibrant.With only classic rock cover bands invited to perform at small bars in the area, their band's brand of music could help attract a younger crowd to the area’s small bar scene, they belive.But on their way to a weeklong music festival in Gainesville, Fla., last fall, the band made a pit stop in Naples, Fla., to play at a sports bar and was surprisingly well received by an older, mostly middle-aged crowd.According to Ayotte, a 2009 graduate of Milford High, playing at bars is second nature for the four-piece rock band."We do it in Boston all the time. But here, there might be older people in the crowd," he said.On Friday and Saturday nights, however, Ayotte said one could find a large number of 20-somethings at the Turtle Tavern, a small bar with a stage on Milford's Main Street."It used to be kind of an older-generation bar, but now I think a lot of the crowd is interested in our type of music," he said.The all-Milford Daydreamer, a four-piece refusing to pin a genre on their music, is in the process of recording another five-song EP to support their last three-song EP "Three Months," released in October.According to bassist Bill Shaner, 22, a 2009 graduate of Milford High, the band formed last May with himself and Derryk Recchia, 18, Milford class of 2013, then grew to include Jonathin Niro, 21, class of 2011 on guitar, and 2012 graduate Brian Nogueira, 20, the brother of Young Leaves bassist Lindsey Nogueira, on drums.Over a metronome helping the guitarists keep pace for the band’s upcoming release, the band weighed in on the state of the local music scene at the Echo Room back in January.According to Shaner, the Upton VFW and Rad Skatepark in Mendon are the only venues willing to host their shows, but with the latter being tailored to skater-friendly hardcore acts."For straight rock, there isn’t a whole lot," he said.While most bands start at a younger age, the band came together after graduating from high school. Had they formed before, they may not have lasted long."It’s almost like a Milford band initiation," Recchia said of the tendency for area bands to fail after a short time. "Its like, 'Congrats, you’ve fizzled out, now you’re a Milford band.’"But with a promising release on the way, other things are on the band’s mind."I just want to play my guitar," Recchia said.Although Silhouette Rising, a three-piece dark pop act hails from Wakefield, singer and guitarist Cameron Liberatore, 23, grew up in Franklin, graduating from Franklin High in 2008.He said he joined the band late in 2012 when drummer and 2008 Wakefield High grad James DiNanno, 23, overheard Liberatore recording a solo album and invited him to practice with the band because a guitarist had just quit. At that practice, another guitarist quit, leaving Liberatore, DiNanno and his brother Rob, 19, a 2011 graduate of Wakefield High, on keys."It’s just one of those things that collapsed into us," he said. "We didn’t know if we were actually going to do it."But after a year of numerous tours including a performance at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas, and releasing another 10 songs, Silhouette Rising is giving small Massachusetts town music a face.And with a music video for "Rehab" finding its way onto MTV, there may be no slowing down for the trio who find their influences in groups like Dispatch, Circa Survive and Bon Iver.Although the band often plays in Boston and Lowell area clubs on the weekends when not on tour, weekend performances are hard to come by in smaller towns in the middle of the state.Liberatore said many churches and function halls that once served as a venue for "kids to throw each other around a little bit" for some reason ceased to book shows for the sometimes aggressive music that comes out of the area.With the trio set on making a name for themselves, Liberatore said a move to a music-friendly city is always a viable option - for any band."Move to somewhere where (a music scene) exists," he said. "We’re already debating it."But David Lavalley, executive director at The Center for the Arts in Natick, said the nonprofit venue "doesn’t receive many inquiries" from young, indie-rock bands to perform there."We invite anybody," he said, adding that there is a page on the facility’s website for artists to inquire about performing there.The performing artists booked at TCAN range from well-known singer-songwriters to world music, from classic rock cover bands to family shows for young children, from jazz to classical and local high school rock bands, he said, as well as community theater productions."The bulk of it is not young indie bands," he said.Along with not having an alcohol license, Lavalley said another reason for the lack of young alternative and indie bands booking shows at TCAN is because the audience just simply isn’t in the area."The artists have to go where the audience is," he said, citing the "critical mass" of universities and colleges in the Boston area. "That’s where the kids are who attend these performances."With every method of public transportation available to those closer to the city, Lavalley said getting to these "club-type venues" that double as bars, like Cambridge venues The Middle East and T.T. the Bears Place, is a "piece of cake.Getting back and forth is fairly easy as opposed to being out here in the suburbs," he said, adding that the demographic interested in these bands simply just isn’t in abundance west of the city."You kind of have to go where the audience is," he said.Zachary Comeau can be reached at 508-634-7556 and zcomeau@wickedlocal.com. Follow him on Twitter @ZComeau_MDN.